Tim Peake introduces Prof. Brian Cox who explains why there are days and years on Earth.
The seasons are linked to the 23掳 tilt of the Earth鈥檚 axis.
There is a time-lapse animation of the Earth throughout the year showing the northern hemisphere pointing towards the sun during its summer and pointing away from the sun during its winter.
There are a collection of surprising facts about planets orbiting the sun.
Mercury is the closest and fastest reaching a speed of 200,000 kmph.
On Venus a day is longer than a year due to its extremely slow rotation.
Neptune has such a long year that it hasn鈥檛 yet completed an orbit since it was discovered in 1846.
Teacher Notes
Key Stage 3
Could be used to introduce the idea of days, years and seasons.
Students could research and explain, produce posters or perform a class presentation on what causes the seasons on Earth and their effect on weather and people.
Students could research and explain, produce posters or perform a class presentation on the length of days and years of all the planets in the solar system.
They could spot and analyse patterns in the length of a planet鈥檚 year and its distance from the Sun.
Key Stage 4/GCSE
Could be used to recap the idea of days, years and seasons.
Students could be challenged to explain why different planets orbit at different speeds and take different amounts of time.
Students could calculate the length of a year on each planet if they are given the planets鈥 speed and distance from the Sun 鈥 or visa versa.
Students could investigate the relationship between distance from the Sun and orbital speed or length of a year (Keppler鈥檚 Third Law) by plotting an appropriate graph.
Curriculum Notes
This clip will be relevant for teaching Physics/Science at KS3, Key Stage 4/GCSE in England Wales and Northern Ireland. Also at Third Level, National 4/National 5 and Higher in Scotland, and Cambridge IGCSE Physics.
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The Origin of the Northern and Southern Lights. video
Helen Czerski explains the origin of the Northern and Southern Lights.
Landing a human on Mars. video
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Launching satellites into orbit. video
Tim Peake introduces Maggie Aderin-Pocock who explains how satellites are launched into orbit around the Earth.